National Radical Camp

The National Radical Camp (Polish: Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) was an ultranationalist, patriotic, and antisemitic political movement which existed in the pre-World War II Second Polish Republic,[2] and an illegal Polish anti-communist,[3] and nationalist political party formed on 14 April 1934 mostly by the youth radicals who left the National Party of the National Democracy movement.[3]

National Radical Camp
AbbreviationONR
LeaderONR: Jan Mosdorf
ONR-Falanga: Bolesław Piasecki
ONR-ABC: Henryk Rossman
Founded14 April 1934
1935 (Falanga & ABC)
Dissolved10 July 1934 (banned by a decree of the Polish government)
1939 (Falanga & ABC)
Membership5,000 (1937 est.)[1]
Ideology • Ultranationalism
 • National radicalism
 • Fascism
 • Anti-communism
 • Political Catholicism
 • Antisemitism
Political positionFar-right
ReligionRoman Catholicism
Colours  Green   White
Party flag

Shortly after its creation ONR split into two branches: the National Radical Movement Falanga (Polish: Ruch Narodowo Radykalny-Falanga; RNR-Falanga or ONR-Falanga), and National Radical Camp ABC (Polish: Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny ABC; ONR-ABC). "Falanga" is Polish for "phalanx", "ABC" refers to a newspaper printed by the organisation at the time.

Since 1993, an organization exists in Poland that has adopted the name ONR, following its ideology and traditions.

First incarnation (1934)

The party was influenced by the ideas of Italian Fascism.[4] It rejected parliamentary democracy and called for the construction of a "national state," based on the principles of hierarchy, one-person leadership, and elimination of national minorities from public life.[5]

Dominated by youth, National Radical Camp was an outgrowth of the Endecja movement, an ultra-nationalist movement that had arisen in the 1920s.[6] The emergence of the National Radical Camp was part of broader movement of the Polish right toward radicalization in the 1930s.[7] Virulently antisemitic and eliminationist, ONR's members were responsible for an increase in antisemitic violence after 1935.[7]

The party was created on the insistence of former members of the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski),[3] including Jan Mosdorf, Tadeusz Gluziński and Henryk Rossman.[3] It supported "class solidarity," nationalization of foreign and Jewish-owned companies and introduction of antisemitic laws.[3]

The ONR was mostly supported by students and other groups of urban youth. ONR openly encouraged anti-Jewish pogroms, and became the main force in the organization of attacks against Jews.[8] It organized fighting squads, attacked Jews and leftist politicians, destroyed Jewish property, and provoked clashes with the police.[5] Because of its involvement in boycott of Jewish-owned stores,[9] as well as numerous attacks on left-wing worker demonstrations,[10] the ONR was outlawed after three months of existence, in July 1934.[3] Several leaders were interned in the Bereza Kartuska Detention Camp, where the organization split into two separate factions: the ONR-Falanga (Ruch Narodowo-Radykalny) led by Bolesław Piasecki, and the ONR-ABC (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny) formed around the ABC journal and led by Henryk Rossman.[3] Both organizations were officially illegal.[3]

During World War II

During World War II, both organizations created underground resistance organizations: ONR-ABC was transformed into Grupa Szańca (Rampart Group), whose military arm became the Związek Jaszczurczy (Lizard Union),[3] while the ONR-Falanga created the Confederation of the Nation. They were not supportive of the mainstream Polish Underground State related to the Polish government in exile.[3] During the German occupation of Poland, many of the former ONR activists belonged to National Armed Forces resistance groups. After World War II, the forced exile of many ONR members was made permanent by the newly created Polish People's Republic, which branded them enemies of the state.

Falanga

Formation and ideology

The RNR-Falanga was formed in the spring of 1935 following a split by members of the National Radical Camp held in Detention Camp Bereza Kartuska. Adopting the name of Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny (National Radical Camp), it soon became known as Falanga after the title of its journal (the rival group would also soon be named after its own journal, thus becoming known as National Radical Camp-ABC).[11]

The Falanga was led by Bolesław Piasecki and advocated a 'Catholic totalitarianism' inspired by Spanish Falangism. However, although clearly derived from Falangism, it has been argued that their Catholicism was even more central than that of the Spanish group[12] and indeed their pronouncement that "God is the highest form of man" recalled the religious fanaticism of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.[13] The group is widely considered to have been a fascist movement.[11][14][15] Harshly critical of capitalism and supportive of removing citizenship rights from Poland's Jews[11] it presented itself as the vanguard of the opposition to Józef Piłsudski.[11]

Development

Largely based on university campuses, the Falanga followed a policy of anti-Semitism and although it had few members,[3] from its power bases in schools it attempted to launch attacks on Jewish students and businesses.[16] Left-wing activists were also as part of this violent activity.[11]

The group soon came under scrutiny from the Polish government. Indeed, unlike similar movements in other European countries that regularly held public rallies, the ONR-Falanga held only two such gatherings, in 1934 and 1937, both of which were quickly broken up by the police.[15]

For a time the movement became associated with the Camp of National Unity (Polish: Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego, OZN) as Colonel Adam Koc, impressed by the organisation of the ONR-Falanga, placed Piasecki in charge of the OZN youth group. Koc called for the creation of a one-party state and hoped to use the youth movement to ensure this although his pronouncements upset many pro-government moderates. As such, Koc was removed from the leadership of the OZN in 1938 and replaced by General Stanisław Skwarczyński who quickly severed any ties to the ONR-Falanga.[17]

Disappearance

As a Polish nationalist movement the RNR-Falanga opposed the German occupation of Poland after the 1939 invasion, and thus was quickly subsumed by the Confederation of the Nation, a group within the Polish resistance that retained certain far right views.[11]

However, following the establishment of a communist government in 1945, Piasecki was allowed to lead the PAX Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie PAX), a supposedly Catholic organisation that was in fact a front group of the NKVD which aimed to promote the new communist regime to Poland's Catholics whilst turning them away from the Vatican.[18]

ABC

The ONR-ABC was the second splinter group besides Falanga founded by Henryk Rossman.

See also

References
  1. Antoni Dudek, Grzegorz Pytel: Bolesław Piasecki. Próba biografii politycznej. Londyn: 1990. p. 58. ISBN 0-906601-74-6.
  2. Christian Davies (11 November 2018). "Poland's president addresses far right at independence march". Guardian.
  3. (in Polish) Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny Archived 30 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine WIEM Encyklopedia
  4. Marszał, Maciej (2007). Włoski faszyzm w polskiej myśli politycznej i prawnej 1922-1939 (in Polish). Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. p. 32. ISBN 978-83-229-2791-5.
  5. Lerski, Jerzy J.; Wróbel, Piotr; Kozicki, Richard J. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. pp. 379. ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0.
  6. Martin Blinkhorn (2000). Fascism and the Right in Europe 1919-1945 (2013 ed.). Routledge. p. 53.
  7. Aristotle Kallis (2009). Genocide and Fascism: The Eliminationist Drive in Fascist Europe. Routledge. p. 125. ISBN 9781134300341.
  8. Joshua A. Fishman (1974) Studies on Polish Jewry, 1919-193 Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
  9. Wapiński 1980, 308.
  10. Ajnenkiel 1974, 226.
  11. C.P. Blamires, World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-Clio, 2006, p. 523
  12. Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914-1945, London: Routledge, 2001, p. 262
  13. Payne, A History of Fascism, pp. 321-2
  14. P. Davies & D. Lynch, The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right, London: Routledge, 2002. p. 324
  15. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland Volume 2: 1795 to the Present, Columbia University Press, 1982, p. 262
  16. J.W. Borejsza, "East European Perceptions of Italian Fascism", S. U. Larsen, B. Hagtvet & J. P. Myklebust, Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism, Scandinavian University Press, Oslo, 1980, p. 358
  17. Payne, A History of Fascism, p. 322
  18. Davies, God's Playground, p. 579

Further reading
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